Data Dive: How men feel about the fight for women’s rights
During the month of March, there’s lots of discussion about how far women’s rights have come.
And while many women enjoy freedoms their great-grandmothers only dreamed of; the reality is there’s still a long way to go.
Teens and young women in Afghanistan can’t even attend secondary school or college/university. Meanwhile, schoolgirls in Iran were reportedly recently poisoned. And even in democracies where women have been working outside the home for decades now, many are still paid less than men for the same work. Despite all the talk about equality, the United Nations predicts it could take 257 years to close the global gender pay gap.
Clearly, there’s still plenty of work to do to make life more equitable for more women.
As Women’s History Month wraps up in the US; and a few weeks after the 2023 celebration of International Women’s day, we take a deeper dive into Ipsos' recent International Women’s Day polling, which provides an eye-opening look at what men are thinking about the gender equality movement right now.
- Good news/bad news
The good news? Men agree there’s a problem as almost two in three (63% of men on average across 32 countries) somewhat/strongly agreed “there is currently an inequality between women and men in terms of social, political and/or economic rights in my country.”
The bad news? While most men acknowledge women face inequality most men (58%) think “things have gone far enough.”
- Perspective is everything
In fact, more than half (55% of men on average globally) now believe the fight for women’s equality has gone so far, it’s actually led to men being discriminated against. Tellingly, fewer (though still a significant minority) of women also think men are being discriminated against.
- Heavy load?
On top of feeling discriminated against, many men (59% on average globally) said they’re “expected to do too much to support equality.”
- Keeping quiet
While some men feel they’re being asked to do too much, just over a third (on average globally) said they’re feminists – though only a tiny percentage of men have recently told anyone that.
Women, too, appear wary about outwardly defining themselves with the ‘f’ word as while 44%, on average globally, said they define themselves as a feminist a mere 8% said they had told somebody they are in the past year.
- Fear of consequences
While everyone from activists to business leaders to politicians wax on about the importance of being a feminist and an ally not only during March but throughout the year, a fairly significant of both men and women are quite nervous about the possible consequences of speaking out on this issue.
